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This past weekend, we took advantage of the wonderful weather and spent most of the day outside. The humidity was down, and it was warm, but not too hot, outside. We spent the morning and some of the afternoon trying an activity called Geocaching. This is basically a treasure hunt with a GPS receiver. People hide various containers, and post the GPS coordinates and a hint to find them on a website. Then, you enter those coordinates into a GPS receiver, and go off to try and find the cache.

Some are smaller than a 35mm film canister, while others are around the size of a shoebox and are filled with various trinkets to trade. If you take something, you're supposd to also leave something behind. And there's always a log, where you can record your visit, as well as recording it on the geocaching.com website.

This is turning out to be a very fun activity for us to enjoy as a family. There are many benefits. First of all, it's cheap. The only real expense is the cost of a GPS receiver. I've actually been borrowing one from a friend (thanks, Bob), but entry level models can be had for as little as $90. After that, there's not really any expense at all. Another good thing is that It's an outdoor activity, and can even involve exercise, depending on the terrain where the cache is hidden. I did a cache the other day where I had to walk nearly a mile on a trail to get to the cache. Of course, others are more easily accessible. Regardless, you get fresh air and no TV! The kids enjoy the thrill of finding hidden "treasure", and they get to take something home with them.

Anyway, if you like technology or gadgets, and you like the outdoors, geocaching may be right up your alley--check it out!

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